The OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Stephen Matthews as the Chief Tax Economist/Head of the Tax Policy and Statistics division, as of 4th May 2009. Mr Matthews, a UK national, has over 20 years experience in the area of tax and fiscal policy, having held senior positions in the UK Treasury and H.M. Revenue and Customs. His most recent position was Head of Tax Analysis and Research at HMRC. He is familiar with the OECD as this was one of his responsibilities in the UK.

Mr Matthews also brings with him extensive experience in leadership and management, having managed the business unit of some 120 economists, statisticians and researchers that provides a joint analytical service for Treasury and HMRC on tax policy development and implementation, including work on developing and using models for estimating the revenue costs of tax measures, and for analyzing behavioural and distributional effects of tax policy options; quantifying impacts on taxpayer compliance and compliance costs; evaluation and other research on the impact of tax policy interventions; and preparing and publishing tax statistics.